Littlehampton Redoubt, Littlehampton

Littlehampton Redoubt, usually known as Littlehampton Fort, was built in 1854 to protect the entrance to the River Arun at Littlehampton on the south coast of England, against possible attack by the French under the Emperor Napoleon III. There had been a previous battery on the east bank of the river, but the new fort was built on the west bank. It consisted of a platform from which cannon could sweep the harbour mouth, with a barracks behind and a surrounding defensive ditch and wall. The fort was an innovative military structure, incorporating the new feature of a Carnot wall. Its active use as a fort was short at only about 20 years, owing to technical changes in armaments, but it was a precursor of the later Palmerston Forts and therefore is NOT the First Palmerston Fort as has been alleged. The Palmerston Forts were built after the 1860 commission. Littlehampton Fort is now in a ruinous and overgrown state but largely protected by the Ivy that now grows over the walls. ()